Au Cochonnet Marin

Well, not really… After more than a month of “far niente,” I am sick of it and I am starting to get singularly antsy. And yes Mae West, there can be too much of a good thing!

At the urge of our supreme commander, all my being is calling for an early “liberation.” While my mind is urging restraint, my (unarmed) body is rebelling and demanding immediate “freedom.”
I am trying to reason with this impulse, but the Wild is urgently calling and like the forbidden fruit, it is difficult to resist.

After much debate with myself, I decided to jump into my car and go for a quick spin around my neighborhood.
Peet’s Coffee, my regular watering hole, was the first place I wanted to investigate.

Upon arriving at the Hamilton Shopping Center in Novato, what struck me was the parking availability. In the good old days, it was fairly difficult to find a space… but today due to far niente it was Parking Heaven. I swear that while leisurely picking a space, I heard heavenly trumpets.

After donning my (wife-made) face mask, I ventured into the strangely empty shopping center.
Peet’s Coffee “we are still brewing” was partially open. You could not get inside, but the door was open and a zombie employee was attending to some (rare) customers.

It seems that some people cannot tackle their job without a cup of java. If I still were in the working force, under these circumstances I would probably opt for a shot of Dutch courage before heading to the office. But to each his own…

Most of the stores were closed, except for a few dining places. It is a little futile to remain open, but I understand and empathize with the predicament of small business owners. It is do or die, and time to circle the wagons.

Despite repeated promises, Uncle Sam is going to assist very few of them. And the Wells Fargo coach has already by ambushed and robbed countless times… There are no greenbacks left…

After a long far niente, there is very little that the government will do to keep small businesses afloat. It has better things to do. It will assist the fat cats, before feeding the starving ones. The conservative religious right motto is and always was “Help yourself and heaven will help you.”

Well, this incursion in enemy territory was not totally satisfying… but with some people still manning the trenches, the city is not about to fall. Reinforcements are coming across Lake Lagoda…

“There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover tomorrow, just you wait and see…”

Alain

We have been in “shelter-in-place” for approximately one month, and as far as I am concerned, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe just a faint flickering…

To win a war, a leader needs to seek counsel from experts (not toadies), and motivate all his countrymen to pull in the same direction. He has to be decisive and take responsibility for his actions. In such a cataclysmic situation, partisanship is also to be abjured.
So far, I have not seen any of those things being implemented.

When the homeland is under attack, the nation has to be united and fight the same enemy. There is no room for guerilla groups seeking to “liberate” parts of the country.

It is “All for one and one for all” and nothing else. As seen on news, our twitter-in-chief has not disavowed such “patriotic” groups.

As usual in such dire situations, conspiracy theories abound. The latest, communicated to me by a friend across the pond reads as follows:

“This virus must have been invented by a woman who in one fell swoop managed to suspend football, close bars and keep her husband at home.”

 I am usually pretty skeptical about this kind of rumor, but this hypothesis seems pretty plausible to me.

On the home front, everything is pretty quiet. We have delegated the cat to patrol our abode and so far, there is not much to report. She remains pretty closemouthed about her covert expeditions.

My foxhole partner is doing a great job and has kept busy planting flowers (and landmines) around the house, producing a variety of face masks and fattening the garrison with a dangerous assortment of homemade delicacies.

For my part, I am trying my best to also come up with some home innovations.
My command post is located on the second floor of our abode, and we have to climb up and down many times during the day. To make this task easier, I am thinking of installing some kind of dumbwaiter (or just rope and pulley) to facilitate the exchange of goods between the ground and the second floor.
Something like the hoist beams I have seen in Amsterdam…

But so far, despite my researches, I have not found the needed kit to implement such a device…  and my roommate is against this upgrade. She said that I need more exercise, and moving up and down 8 to 10 times a day will keep me in fighting shape for the upcoming (?) pétanque season.
Je ne sais pas…

This is all that I have report. Keep in mind that this war  will soon end and that we will all come out of the tranches and exchange plenty of (protected) kisses and hugs.

Ta ta for now…

Alain

Automation has a nice ring to it, but should you totally trust that technology? would stake your life on it? No matter how sophisticated a system is, no machine can yet do without human supervision.

Automation is now ubiquitous in transportation industries, and cars, trains, and planes can practically operate on their own.
You hear every day about people dozing in their cars while traveling at 80 miles per hour on the freeway. They seem to totally trust their machines, but should they?

Cars can now run and park themselves, and big jets can also land on their own; but would you feel entirely comfortable if the pilot was playing solitaire while automation was handling the touchdown?

Automation is undoubtedly convenient, but it lacks true intelligence or intuition. A routine job is OK but sometimes a machine has to use judgement, and it can’t.

The same goes for check spelling for example. It is a very smart and very helpful application, but before you submit your final copy to your boss, review your assistant’s work. And Son of a Gun, you will discover that in its zeal to please, it took some unacceptable liberties with your text… and it overlooked some obvious mistakes.

What about automated translation? Yes, it does a good job, but it still is not smart enough to do a perfect job.

It will blindly translate every word it sees, without being able to fully understand what it does. If you don’t understand a foreign language, Google Translate can induce you in error, and it can also be easily tripped by colloquialisms or plays on words.

This blog of mine sports such a feature and it can translate the English text into French, German, Spanish and Russian. It does an I’mpressive job, but if you are familiar with any of these languages, you will immediately spot the errors.

The Italians have a saying “Traduttore, traditore” (translator, traitor) and I agree with that. You cannot completely trust automation unless you are fluent in the language you are translating.

“Automation does not need to be our enemy. I think machines can make life easier for men, if men do not let the machines dominate them.” ~John F. Kennedy.

 This means, as a Russian proverb says “trust, but verify.”

Trust new technologies, but do not become absolutely subservient to them.

And always keep a piece of dark chocolate handy in case things don’t turn out as expected.

Alain